Locations
Wordsworth Avenue, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51
Description
Prosecutor Neil Treharne told the court on Friday (May 20) that on December 8, 2021 police executed a warrant at Denny Lakenvelders home in Wordsworth Avenue, Cheltenham. It followed officers receiving information from the National Crime Agency that a device at the property had downloaded illegal images.
The Agency stated that on that numerous occasions during October last year Lakenvelder had downloaded indecent images of children from the Kik social media site," said Mr Treharne. When police arrived at the address they seized a mobile phone and sent this off for analysis.
"The results revealed that it contained 56 images of the most serious kind, known as category A, featuring children as young as one year old up to pre-pubescent boys and girls. There were 107 additional indecent images in categories B and C.
In his police interview Lakenvelder admitted he had downloaded images of very young children. He said he did not download any moving images.
Nicholas Clough, defending, said: Lakenvelder has already sought professional help for his sexual offending since his arrest. The images are at the lower end of the scale and he is only charged with possession.
"He did not distribute the images. I believe that as he made a full admission of his guilt on more than one occasion I feel that any custodial sentence could be suspended."
Lakenvelder admitted three offences of making indecent images of children - 56 category A images, 67 category B images and 40 category C images.
Judge Advocate Alastair McGrigor told Lakenvelder: You have indulged in possessing indecent images of children. This offence crosses the custody threshold.
However, I accept you admitted your guilt to the police and you have since shown regret for your behaviour. This demonstrates to me that there is possibility for rehabilitation, for which I can suspend the sentence.
The judge sentenced Lakenvelder to a prison term of six months, suspended for two years and ordered him to attend 20 programme sessions and 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and undertake 180 hours of unpaid work. The judge also imposed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order on Lakenvelder to limit his use of the internet and placed Lakenvelder on the sex offenders register for seven years.